Afghan army soldiers during their graduation ceremony in the western city of Herat in January. Jalil Rezayee/EPA/Landov hide caption

Georgia Kolia, 63, has two adult children, both unemployed. She works as a volunteer distributing loaves of bread at the Agia Zonis Orthodox church soup kitchen for the poor in Athens, Greece, in April 2012. John Kolesidis/Reuters/Landov hide caption

Jeff Torgerson (top) and Dan Volkman browse the selection of rifles at Mainstream Firearms and Marine in Winona, Minn., on Monday. Andrew Link/Winona Daily News/AP hide caption

More than 400 guns, including these three, were turned in during a Dallas gun buyback program in January. But determining the effectiveness of such programs is difficult due to limits on gun-related research. Tom Pennington/Getty Images hide caption

Lena Hughes recorded one album of Southern parlor music before her death in 1998. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

REI CEO Sally Jewell delivers remarks Wednesday after being nominated by President Obama to be the next secretary of the interior. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Harlan County Lake, the Republican River's main reservoir in Nebraska, dropped 10 feet during the summer drought and hasn't recovered. Grant Gerlock hide caption

Derrin Yellow Robe, 3, stands in his great-grandparents' backyard on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota. He was taken off the reservation by South Dakota's Department of Social Services in July 2009 and spent a year and a half in foster care before being returned to his family. John Poole/NPR hide caption

An Amish man and woman walk through a parking lot after leaving the U.S. courthouse in Cleveland in September. Sixteen members of an Amish group in Bergholz, Ohio, led by Samuel Mullet, were found guilty of attacks targeting Amish bishops. Mark Duncan/AP hide caption

The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve after the land was stripped by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Several advocates, including elected leaders, are protesting the move. Courtesy of Mathew Tekulsky hide caption

Wisdom (left) and her mate on their nest last November at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Pete Leary/USFWS hide caption